Everyone knows that the dog is a friend of man. But there are situations when dogs attack people. In addition, sometimes they attack each other, both children and adults can become witnesses of such incidents. It seems to many that the dog attacks suddenly, for no apparent reason. However, as a rule, this is not true. If the dog attacks, what to do in this situation, how to respond to the attack, will prompt an understanding of the causes of its behavior and the adoption of necessary measures.
Reasons for the attack
There are not many reasons why an animal can attack. The causes of aggression in dogs can be as follows:
- Protection of own territory. As a rule, the territory is protected and protected by attacking potential enemies, dogs. Female dogs rarely do this. Probably, many have noticed a situation in which the animal accompanies you to a certain place, then abruptly stops and goes back. This territory, which the dog passed after the person, she considers her own possessions, and therefore protects it.
- Protection of their offspring. A dog will always guard its puppies, however, the way it will do this depends on each individual individual, its breed, and so on. Some simply growl, threaten with a grin, while others bark deafeningly and even try to attack passers-by.
- Inadequate, poorly trained, not trained teams dog. There are also owners who believe that their pet should snarl at other people, thereby showing that it protects its owner.
How to avoid a dog attack
Dog attacks on humans are not uncommon. But it is best to do everything from the beginning to avoid this. To get started, understand why the animal behaves this way, evaluate the situation, see if there are any offspring nearby, is it aggressive in itself. Maybe the dog feels a threat to his master or jealously guards the territory that he considers his own. In these situations, just go around the dog, but in no case run away! The animal may rush after you in pursuit of intimidation.
So, how to behave when attacking a dog:
- The main thing is without panic. If a dog attacks, what to do first is keep calm.
- In no case do not turn to the dog sideways or even back, this is a direct call to attack for the animal. Turn to face him and his whole body.
- Do not try to run away from the dog, they have a strong instinct for chasing the runner, and therefore freeze and stand still, do not move.
- Do not show that you are afraid. Animals feel fear, anger, therefore they will try to attack.
- If a dog runs at you, but the distance between you is still large, you can try to do this: jump sharply forward, right in her direction, this can be confusing and she will stop, or even completely leave.
- Such an action helps: bend sharply and pretend to pick up a cobblestone from the ground and throw it. If pebbles and sticks are lying under your feet, take them and throw them into a dog advancing on you, it’s better even a handful of small stones. Thus, you make the animal understand who is stronger, and they do not attack such, of course, if they are not infected with rabies.
- If there are no stones and other things under your feet, use a bag, an umbrella, keys, everything that is at hand.
- Another easy way is to shout loudly at the animal. Team "Fu" should be said in a loud, steady, confident voice.
Dog handler tips
Specialists working with dogs recommend in a potentially dangerous situation with them to take the right stance and pay attention to whether the pet or stray. On the advice of dog handlers, if a dog attacks, what is recommended:
- Try to maintain balance, this is very important. After all, the dog will rush at you with the power that can knock you down, you can fall, and then it will be much more difficult to fight off it, there will be a large area for applying bites, including the face.
- There is a possibility that you will have to kill the animal, protecting your life. Therefore, you need to be mentally prepared for this.
- Take a body position in which one leg is forward - this is a fighting stance. When the dog rushes at you, sharply put your hand forward, this will be what it will rush to in the first place, that is, it is such a distracting maneuver. And with your foot, hit her on the head.
- An attacking dog will try to bite hands. But stray dogs attack from behind, mostly rush to their feet, do it stealthily.
All of the above tips apply mainly to healthy individuals not infected with rabies virus. In the case of rabid ones, scream as loudly as possible, try to attract the attention of others, fight back as you like. After all, it is almost impossible to avoid the bites of an animal infected with rabies, but you need to fight back so that the wounds are compatible with life.
What to do if it was not possible to avoid a bite
The most important thing to understand: do not hope that the dog that bit you is not contagious. If you hope so and do not go to the doctor on time, the consequences will be extremely serious. It is important to start administering the vaccine in a timely manner in order to avoid the development of rabies with the subsequent possible fatal outcome.
If you see direct indications that the dog is inadequate or infected with rabies, saliva is dripping from her, she violently rushes at everything she sees nearby, at everything moving, cannot control herself, be careful. In this situation, it is extremely important to prevent a bite. After all, the rabies virus is found in saliva. And if the animal bites you, the virus can enter the body through saliva.
How effective the vaccine is will depend on the timeliness of care. Therefore, immediately after a bite, contact a nearby medical center. If you are seriously injured or you are far from the village, immediately call an ambulance.
Ways to protect against an attacking dog
Caught in this situation, many are lost, especially from the fear of being bitten or from ignorance. If a dog attacks, what to do first, trying to minimize damage or to avoid them at all? Remember the following tips:
- When the animal throws itself on a hand or face, at the moment when it is approaching the attacked point, immediately do the following: if the dog chose the hand as the point of attack, abruptly leave the place where you stood, quickly bend it at the elbow, and press it to the chest. If the purpose of the attack is the face, this way you protect it from being bitten by battering the dog with your elbow and protecting your face with your hand.
- A sharp departure from the place where you just stood, will allow you to avoid a bite of the body, the animal can catch only clothes, and itself will fly by.
- When the dog rushes to the foot, again abruptly leave the point of standing, and beat off the head with your hand. Several times leaving him, you thereby discourage him and he will simply get tired of attacking you.
- On sale, you may have noticed self-defense means to scare away dogs: all kinds of sprays, spray cans, aerosols. But you should not use them, because in almost all cases of attack, they only anger the animal even more, provoking subsequent aggression.
How to protect yourself from a fighting breed dog
The attack of a stray dog or dog, just guarding his master - this is not so bad. Even an individual infected with rabies is sometimes less dangerous than an aggressive fighting breed. If a dog attacks, what to do is more or less clear from the tips mentioned above. The wounds will heal, if you immediately go to the hospital, the vaccine will not allow the virus to develop, and the person will recover.
But the attack of a fighting dog directly threatens life, it can easily cripple, leaving without arms or legs, or even kill. How then to behave if the attacking dog is a fighting breed? The most important thing is to find something that can protect you from bites: it can be a jacket, bag, umbrella, any thing that will not allow you to get to the body.
Also remember that the main target of a fight dog’s attack is the neck, which is where it will aim. And he won’t leave you alone until he took the prey. You can hit as hard between the eyes as possible to scare her as much as possible and make her lose her orientation. If you succeed, shove any object into her teeth so that she takes it for a trophy or prey, then she will stop attacking and leave.
Fall after dog attack
Worst of all, when a dog manages to knock down and knock a person to the ground. In such a situation, it is very difficult to give any advice, and self-defense means will not help anymore, because a person begins to act instinctively, reflexively assuming a position in which he will receive the least amount of damage. The resulting shock does not allow thinking and acting constructively. Nevertheless, try to pull yourself together in such a situation. And remember, if the dog attacks, what to do after the fall:
- waving arms and legs, try to get the dog in the nose;
- guard and hide your neck from the fighting one;
- if the dog is moving quite slowly, grab it by the ears, and even better, knock it to the ground yourself and begin to choke;
- in the most extreme cases, both the attacker and the police have the right to kill the animal.
The most terrible option is an attempt to attack a dog pack. But here it is important not to panic and drive off at least one of the packs, thereby showing the rest that you are stronger. And the attacks will be avoided.
Cyclist and dog attack
An animal can attack not only a pedestrian, but also a person on a bicycle. Moreover, this case is quite common. Surely many, while taking a bike ride, noticed dogs that abruptly started to run, trying to bite their legs, pedaling.
The main thing is not to panic, not to show your fear. It is by no means necessary to sharply increase the speed of movement, because not only will it inflame the animal, moreover, the dog is quite capable of gaining speed more than yours much faster. If, nevertheless, she grabbed by the leg, sharply press the brake. Thanks to the inertia of the attacker, the dog will be thrown forward. After that, get off the bike, exposing it between yourself and the animal as a shield.
The attack of other dogs on the owner of the dog
In addition to the fact that the animal can attack just a walking person, there are situations when, walking with your own pet, you can stumble on aggression from other dogs, be it domestic ones having a master, or street, stray dogs.
If the attack has already been committed, do not stretch the mating dogs, this will only aggravate the situation. It is better to put a scarf, scarf, jacket, anything on the head of the attacking animal, which will confuse her, stop seeing the target of the attack. At the same time, release his pet from the leash, he will either run away or fight back the attacker. If possible, pour water on the mating attackers.
If you are in a situation where an attack is only possible, but not yet committed, try to avoid it: give your dog the command to "sit", and drive away the one that tried to attack. Thus, you will make it clear to your animal that you will deal with the situation yourself, thereby avoiding that your pet will mate with the attacker.